A story that had been teased out seductively on social media as being true abruptly sank into a fiery fake news wreck before ever reaching orbit on Tuesday.

The teasing on Tuesday included a Facebook post: “Michael Cernovich and I are going to end the career of a U.S. Senator,” wrote the Trump-supporting proprietor of GotNews.com, Charles C. Johnson.

Cernovich, an ally in the conservative media sphere, took to Twitter to make a similar boast. “I am in possession of a sexual harassment complaint filed against one of Senator Gillibrand’s colleagues." ...